Currently, if you build power armor based on a procedure from the combat discipline, it ends up fundamentally weaker than power armor from any other discipline.

The two relevant benefits of power armor to this discussion are:

Any called Effect delivered by blade or bullets and without the Stealth descriptor may be reduced by calling “Reduce: Armor” and instead be treated as the “Damage 1” effect. You always have the choice of suffering an Effect rather than replacing it with damage.

And

You may call “Reduce: Armor” against Effects from the Discipline of your Power Armor’s Base Procedure, taking them instead as 1 Damage. This takes up the same slot as the Base Procedure of your Armor, at the same time.


If you build power armor off of a combat procedure, the second listed benefit lets you reduce all combat effects to one damage. However, 95% of all combat effects are already guns or blades delivered, and thus can already be reduced to one damage.

I propose giving combat based power armor some sort of additional benefit to make up for this inefficiency, because it feels like combat power armor shouldn't be fundamentally weaker than other forms of power armor.

I don't think this is as big an issue with assault armor, because barrier combat is better than reducing to one damage.

I'm not sure what the extra bit for combat power armor should be, but wanted to start the discussion/consideration.

Powered armor only protects against one discipline now?

I was only listing out the relevant parts of how power armor works. I'll pull the full description.

Power Armor: A mechanized suit. Power Armor is a Device created through Engineering with the Power Armor Modifier. Provides the following benefits:

All Hazard Armor benefits.

Components attached to the Power Armor gain the Tactical Textiles benefit.

Uncalled ranged attacks may be shrugged off at will; call “Barrier: Armor” when using this ability. Any called Effect delivered by blade or bullets and without the Stealth descriptor may be reduced by calling “Reduce: Armor” and instead be treated as the “Damage 1” effect. You always have the choice of suffering an Effect rather than replacing it with damage.

NOTE: Because you are now resistant to all Uncalled Shots, you may only move at a deliberate walking pace. People not in Power Armor should be able to move away from you faster than you can move towards them.

The Power Armor Device’s Weight does not count against the user’s Strength for carrying purposes while active (although any modular components in it do).

You may call “Reduce: Armor” against Effects from the Discipline of your Power Armor’s Base Procedure, taking them instead as 1 Damage. This takes up the same slot as the Base Procedure of your Armor, at the same time. Like with Hazard Armor, you must expend a use of the Procedure from the Device at the beginning of game to start this effect, and after the Device has been Disabled for any length of time, to restart this protection.

Really, go nuts with the prop. Check out some of the pictures we have of other Power Armor suits for ideas, but it should have: glowiness, bulkiness, noisiness, or general awesomeness present in its design.

Functionally here's the list of benefits (ignoring the components get tactical textiles benefit because that really doesn't do that much.)

You barrier uncalled blades and bullets
You reduce non-stealth called blades/bullets to 1 damage
You must only walk, not run
The weight of the device itself doesn't count while you're using it
The procedure it's based on becomes constant effect
You reduce all calls of the discipline of the device's procedure to one damage

It's the last benefit that interacts weirdly with combat procedures, because it's much less good than if the power armor was built off of any other discipline's procedures, because you're already able to do most of what basing off a combat procedure lets it do.

Agreed here on all counts. Arguably combat is the most appropriate discipline to use for Powered Armor devices, and the rules de-incentivize it due to this overlap.

Ideas I've tossed around to address:
-+1 Base vit while wearing combat-based powered armor.
-+X healable (non-base) vit while wearing. Specific of what X is can be figured out. Maybe 3?
-Some manner of bonus to any bestowed defensive combat procedures? (Two uses per bestow maybe?)

Not sure what the best specific remedy is, but as it is right now, Powered Armor based off of a Combat procedure is strictly worse than the other disciplines.

Some food for thought:

It protects you from Punch/Procedure Packet delivered Combat calls, which on Cast Side are relatively common with the use of "Subdue" as a primary example, but for which there are a number of cast characters who can do. More than that/exactly who, FOIG.

It protects you from Environmental Effect delivered Combat calls, which may particularly relevant for the event you all have requested for the Winter One Day with artillery shells and sniper fire being the major hazards potentially encountered, right after direct falling damage which I'm not entirely sure which Discipline I'm gonna put it in but Combat/Physics/Production are the leading contenders right now.

Hope that adds some perspective.

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-Josh Marcus
Head of Plot, FI 3